Crazy Pills, You’re Not Making Anyone Feel Any Better

Ugh, Don't know why my comment up there says "take a Lakers team to 5 games" when it was obviously 7 games. My bad.

Antoine, you're comparing apples to oranges. Artest was a free agent and sold his skills to the Lakers at a big discount. The Celts traded for KG and Allen, they weren't free agent signings. And those other guys you mention are/were paid market rate.

I don't care one way or the other about Artest, if he wants to take a paycut to get a ring before he retires, good for him. Like the post says, that doesn't wash away his sins, but I don't think he's suggesting it does, just talking about getting another chance for himself. No big deal.

not to pile on, HP is a great site but you neglect the race factor. Sure Artest is crazy and irresponsible with the cd hyping and shenanigans [and to be fair stephen jackson also helped subvert that pacers team- and reggie miller #31 baby is my FAVORITE player of all time, the stickman, hollywood]. but artest played in sac town and indiana and perhaps was not too cool with white people after the whole riot in which a white guy felt he could throw a beer on him simply because he didn't like the way he looked while lying on that scorer's table.

It's true that even if Artest wins a ring now, it's not going to make it up for Reggie or anyone on that Pacers squad, and as such it may not provide him with any real redemption. I agree with your premise.

But was it necessary to point that out by demeaning his phenomenal effort this year? the way he *tried* to work within the offense, lost 20lbs to be better on defense, etc.? I know you have a soft spot for small market team, an underdog complex that was mentioned so many times on this blog. but whether Artest's effort this year happened to the Evil Lakers Empire or a struggling small market team does not take anything away from its merit.

and the Lakers as a "band of mercenaries"? of please.
why would you think that these lakers are playing there for money and money only? Fisher left millions on the table when he returned from utah (albeit there's that issue with his daughter's cancer). Artest took way less money than he could last year. so did Odom. mercenaries, really?

and how would you know that "this isn’t a team that loves one another and fights for each other"? were you in their locker room, their practices? did you read their texts and listen to their private conversations? did you not see how they celebrated on Artest's Gm5 buzzer-beating winner?

if you are really that riled up about "mercenaries", they'd be this summer's free-agents/superstars.

and cant forget adding kg and ray ray too..

"This isn’t a team that loves one another and fights for each other. It’s a team of mercenaries basking in their own glorious superiority."

a team of mercenaries is the celtics, signing sam cassel, james posey, rasheed, michael finely, nate, pj brown... these are guys who signed or asked to be win a chip... who have the lakers signed besides artest... yes ill throw in gasol.. but all these guys on the team have been there for a while and grow as a team... again.. haters gon hate i guess.

I think you may be overlooking the Kobe/Phil factor. Ron practically worships Kobe. Yeah they competed on court but off court every interaction I have ever read/seen has been crazy pills adoration. Even that last second put back he told the world that Kobe was fouled and thats why he knew he had to get there. The playback shows solid defense and a mid air double pump air ball. Kobe's ego and (to msk's) point obsessive crazyiness to be the greatest obviously has helped.

Seeing all the other outreach to the community stuff that Ron has done in LA makes me root for him. What other high profile NBA player gives out their cell # and sets up beach bar-b-cue and football? That, as a regular guy 1000 miles away is endearing.

Everyones life experiences and journey helps to shape who they become and if you aren't happy with where you see yourself then you work hard to make a change and you keep working hard to make those correct choices every time and that more than anything is what Ron has done. And to be honest I don't think he could of done it anywhere but LA (it seemed like the perfect storm of a situation for him specifically)

So I agree with you that it would be great for some underdog small market team to catch a enigma type player as he matures and makes the right decisions to help the younger guys develop and charge into the playoffs (2010 Grizzlies perhaps?) Ron was never going to be THAT guy.

Maybe that was your point...This is way too long... sorry

Thanks for all of the time and dedication

I know what you are saying, but like MSK said maybe Artest just needed a undisputed top dog to play under. It also helps that he is a huge Kobe fan boy. I think it may be that which dictated his unforgivable shot selections in the past versus now. I mean its not like he doesn't stall the offense on the Lakers, its just that this time running down on defense he has to deal with Kobe's stink eye burrowing a hole into his back.

Mo, he was an "okay" soldier, but he also hijacked a ton of shots. Part of that was McGrady's absence and the lack of a real volume scorer, but part of it was just Crazy Pills being Crazy Pills.

Justin, you're absolutely right that he's shown grace and modesty for the Lakers, which is at once disappointing because we enjoyed his antics and also because, how can he blow up so many other squads and not LA? Expecting him to be who he's been his whole career isn't deluded. Every Laker fan I know, especially Brett Polakoff at FanHouse was TERRIFIED of Artest, and knew it was a gamble. It paid off, like it always does for LA. Doesn't mean that isn't worth noting.

And we like statistics, so that means we don't care about passion and chemistry at all? This blog believes in well rounded coverage of all ideas towards basketball. Just because we think metrics are helpful doesn't mean we don't believe in chemistry. Come on, son.

msk, I was referring to helping an All-Star get his first ring, which he failed to do with Reggie Miller and Yao Ming.

I don't think that you're being fair to Artest re: his time in Houston. He was a good soldier that busted his butt and helped that team take a Lakers team to 5 games. When Yao went down he fought just as hard as everyone on that team and went to war for them. He wasn't disruptive there either (unless you count the anecdote that Morey passed through Simmons after Artest signed with the Lakers to help make Morey look better for the virtual trade of Ariza for Artest).

Wow, once again we have the ultimate "haters gonna hate" article directed at the Lakers on none other than the awesome Hardwood Paroxysm.

Ron Artest isn't here to make you feel better. He's not here to make Larry Bird feel better. He's here because he's grown as a basketball player and is trying to add to his legacy. He has shown nothing but grace and modesty playing for the Lakers this year and if you thought for even one second that he'd be disrupting chemistry or seriously hurting the offense with "crazy" play you were simply deluding yourself into thinking that the Lakers front office actually made a bad decision that would hurt their title chances.

It's not Artest's fault that teams gave him the reigns to the offense. Who's to say how he would have played had Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady both been healthy for the Rockets? Even then, the Lakers are the first team that Ron has played on where he is legitimately the 5th or even sixth overall best offensive player and he has accepted his role.

Also, I love the irony of reading snide remarks about how the Lakers don't "love each other enough" on Hardwood Paroxysm. This blog has more advanced statistics driven analysis than any other blog I read and then all of a sudden when the finals come around we're going to complain about how the Lakers aren't friendly enough with each other? Either make it about basketball or don't, but don't pick and choose what you want to highlight when it involves teams you don't like.

I see where you're coming from, but:

"He’s not helping out a veteran All-Star Hall of Famer win a ring to cement his legacy."

I take it you mean someone who has never won a ring. If so, fine. But he is helping a veteran All-Star Hall of Famer potentially win ANOTHER ring to cement his legacy.

And I don't think Artest is deliberately spitting on everyone else. Inadvertently, maybe, but not deliberately. Maybe Artest needed always to play on teams with one guys who was indisputably the number one, the truly craziest, give-me-the-effin-ball and watch me win this thing, to cow is own craziness. Because we all know that despite surface appearances, Kobe is way crazier than Artest.

They both pale in comparison to KG.